The Development of Media in West Germany

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It could be argued that Germany is the "birthplace of European intellectual journalism"¹. However, media in Germany has had to endure frustration and trauma in achieving such high standing in the journalistic world; suffering the "fragmentation of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries"¹, restrictions born of censorship and political control of the "long period of stultifying authoritarianism and relative economic stagnation"¹ of that time. Moreover, the Bismarck period, despite the first government thereof introducing the allegedly "'liberating' [sic]" `Reichspressegesetz' (Imperial Press Law) "was hardly liberal... Above all, the limited `liberalisation' of the press law reflected the rising power and influence of the industrial and commercial middle classes"². However, it would be the effects of the dictatorship and censorship of the Third Reich that would ultimately shatter, and the Allied Occupation of Germany which would help rebuild and redevelop the media of the defeated country. In this essay, I intend to outline the fundamental principles which aided the development of the media in Western Germany, with particular emphasis on press media, during the time of the Allied occupation up until approximately 1955.

Firstly, to understand the developments, one must first be aware of the circumstances in which Germany found herself in the aftermath of World War II. Hitler's propaganda machine, overseen by the master of propaganda himself, Josef Göbbels and the backing of the media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, the National Socialist publishing house, the `Eher Verlag', had "become the largest

¹ - `Media & Media Policy in Western Germany, P J Humphries pp13

² - `Media & Me...

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... illustrates the development of the German media, as influence by the Allied occupation period.

Finally, by 1955 the `Springer Verlag' had been founded by the `modern' media mogul Axel Springer, who not only has `Die Welt' in his possession, but in addition the `Bild-Zeitung', and another popular paper, the `Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' had also been established. 13.4 million papers were in circulation by this point. Overall it is evident that the Allied intentions were for the media in Germany to be of a "free and pluralist" nature, and it is clear that the press "of the present day German Federal Republic is almost entirely a creation of the post-War years."

¹ - `Mass Media' John Sanford, pp 28

² - `Mass Media' John Sanford, pp 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY

`Mass Media' Peter J Humphries

`Media and Media Policy in Western Germany' John Sanford

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